At times in Christian thought, the priorities of pure doctrine and passionate mission have been perceived as opposites on a spectrum where emphasis on one results in neglect of the other, but without one, the other is deficient and doomed to crumble. Mission without doctrine is like a body without a skeleton, but apart from mission, doctrine is like dry bones in a museum. A Lutheran Reformission maintains a dual emphasis, resulting in doctrinal missions as well as missional doctrine.

Monday, September 28, 2015

For this week's newspapers I answered a question about whether humans have free will and to what extent:

Q: Is it true that humans have a
free will, or are our life and eternity laid down by another power which causes
us to be destined for the events which happen?

This is a question which both
religion and philosophy have both struggled over the course of centuries, and
among Christians, it has historically been the source of some of the most
heated disagreements about doctrinal matters.

Since for people who live in the
Western world, particularly in the United States, much of our way of life is
founded on the ideas of freedom and opportunity, we often get the impression
that this freedom applies in all areas of life.

When we are talking about earthly
things, this is true for the most part. The
majority of the time, humans do have free will when it comes to merely earthly
matters. So, when it comes to what we
eat, where we live, the things we purchase, what we will do for an occupation
and how we will carry out that occupation, humans have a free choice, provided
the choices of their fellow humans do not impose upon them.

However, the Bible makes clear that
in spiritual matters, circumstances are far different. Some of the highlights among these include
Paul’s statement in the book of Romans, quoting from the Psalms, that “No one
seeks God” and “No one does good, not even one,” along with the prophet Jeremiah’s statement
that the human heart is deceitful above all things.

Paul also makes statements throughout the books of Romans, Galatians, and
Ephesians that salvation is “by grace,” that is that it is a pure gift. Now if our salvation is a pure gift, except
that we must exercise an act of free will to make a choice, then it is no
longer pure gift, but rather the result of the human work of making a
choice.

In response to this, some have
suggested that there is no free will at all in humans. They conclude that humans have no free will
at all in spiritual things, and some even extend this to earthly things to the
extent that all things are caused and determined by God with humans merely
carrying out what has been decreed.

This oversimplifies a highly-nuanced
teaching of Scripture, though, whether we apply this idea, called determinism
or fatalism, to only spiritual things or to all of life. Simple answers are always attractive, but
rarely manage to answer the question with the full depth of Scripture.

The witness of the Bible’s authors is
consistently that God receives full credit for any person whose sin is forgiven
and that they played no role in earning or deserving that gift. However, when speaking of those who receive
the punishment their own sins deserve, God never receives the blame, but that
blame is rather squarely assigned to the person who committed the sin.

There is also a distinction regarding
whether the question is asked of a Christian or of an unconverted person. For those who are apart from Christ, it is as
if they possess a free will, but it is restrained to only choose evil in
spiritual matters, and in capable of choosing good. However, for those who have been given the
gift of trust in Jesus, that will has been un-chained from that point forward, the
new person created through faith and Baptism does indeed have a free will, although
it continues to struggle against the old sinner that still dwells within them
for the remainder of their natural life.

Ultimately, humans do possess a free
will, which all people are able to exercise in merely earthly matters, but none
at all as it touches on salvation; and even after being freed by the Holy
Spirit’s work it continues to struggle against sin’s restraints until they
depart this life to await the final Resurrection with their Lord.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

My article for this week's newspapers answers a question regarding the unity of the body and soul and those who would suggest one is superior or that the two can be mis-matched:

Q: Is it possible for a person to
be “trapped in the wrong body” or for there to be a mismatch between who they
are physically and spiritually?

It used to be that when a person
said, “I am a marathon runner trapped in a sumo wrestler’s body,” or “I am a 29
year old trapped in a 70 year old body,” that it was merely a figure of speech
that a person was using to indicate that their attitude did not line up with
their physical attributes.

Today, however, such claims are
regularly stated with the intention of describing what a person believes to be
a factual set of circumstances. News
stories abound where such statements are made about a given person’s race, sex,
health, or abilities, but those who hear such claims, particularly Christians, would
do well to consider the implications of such claims for our understanding of
the human person if they would be factual.

Philosophers in Greek and Roman times
often debated whether a person was composed of two or three or another number
of components parts. Such explanations
would include component parts such as body, soul, mind, and spirit, and in such
systems of thought, it was usually proposed that the immaterial elements made
up the real person and the body was portrayed either as incidental or sometimes
even like a sort of prison.

In other parts of the world, a variety of religious philosophies teach that the
“real” person is the spirit, which is then born repeatedly through a series of several
lifetimes, taking on different bodies.
The common theme between these views of the human person is that they
begin with components, move to the idea of the person, then assign one
component as the one that is essential to humanity and the others as
auxiliary.

Biblical understanding of humanity, on the other hand, sees the person,
although composed of both material and immaterial aspects, as created
whole. This can be seen from the creation
accounts of Genesis to Paul’s epistles, and everywhere between. Any distinction or discrepancy we perceive
between these aspects is only the result of a fallen world, and something we
will only experience during our mortal lives, because we will be made whole at the
resurrection.

There are times when a person might perceive
a difference between the roles or traits that society expects of them based on
their outward characteristics, and they make such statements as a way of
legitimately challenging the assigned traits which arise from culture rather
than Scripture.

In other cases, particularly those
regarding gender, a person may suffer a biochemical irregularity which causes
them to, feel, behave, or perceive themselves in ways that do not fit the body
they are born with. In such cases it is
not that a wrong combination of material and immaterial elements have been
joined in the person, or that one element is the real person and the other a
mistake. Instead, even though they were not
created to feel the discord they experience, a part of them is not functioning
as designed for them to be comfortable as the integrated human being that they
were created to be.

As Christians navigate these kind of
difficulties themselves or help their neighbors who may suffer from such false
perceptions, we recognize that they are a whole person, and since we cannot see
or understand the inner workings of their immaterial elements, the body God
gave them and its genetic code is the only reliable marker of who that person
is before God.

In light of this, we teach that one
aspect of the person is not real while the other is false, but that they are a
whole person. Accordingly, we seek to the best of our
ability to assist them in embracing and living out their reality as a whole
person, and while they endure these struggles in this life, we support and
encourage them through the gifts our Lord has given in His Church until our
Lord returns to make them whole and align all things as He designed them to
be.

Lutheranism is more than a cultural identity or a denominational label. In fact, this cultural and institutional baggage may be the primary obstacle in Lutheranism’s path.

To be a Lutheran is not dependent on a code of behavior or a set of common customs. Instead, to be a Lutheran is to receive Jesus in His Word, Body, and Blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Divine Service; and to be bearers of this pure Truth to a broken world corrupted with sin, death, and every lie of the devil and man’s own sinful heart.

While the false and misleading ideas of human religious invention are appealing to sin-blinded minds, they fail when exposed to the realities of life. It is tragic when souls are led to confusion and despair because of the false religious ideas with which they are surrounded. The Biblical doctrine taught by the Apostles and restored at the Reformation holds answers which are relevant regardless of time or place and offers assurance of forgiven sins and eternal life who all who believe its message.

I am a husband, a father, the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Burt, IA, and track chaplain at Algona Raceway.